Top Rank/Ryota Murata press conference

By Miguel Maravilla
Photos: Chris Farina/Top Rank

Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum hosted a news conference in Beverly Hills, California on Monday to announce the signing and professional debut of 2012 Japanese Olympic Gold Medalist Ryota Murata. Plans are for Murata to make his pro debut in August. He will be trained by Ismael Salas and Miguel Diaz, and alternate between the Teiken Gym in Tokyo and the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas.

The charismatic Murata said in English that he is very excited to be working with Bob Arum and will do his best to become a world champion. Arum stated, “Murata really can fight. His style is extremely crowd-pleasing. He comes in and throws punches with the view to destroy…believe me, in three years we’ll have a new middleweight champion.”